Of Man and the State of Innocence.

Man, after he was created of God, was set in an excellent state of innocence. In this state seven things are chiefly to be regarded.

I. The Place

The garden of Eden, that most pleasant garden:

Genesis 2:15
Then the Lord took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden.

II. The Integrity of Man's Nature

Which was "created in righteousness and true holiness," Ephesians 4:24. This integrity hath two parts.

The first is wisdom, which is a true and perfect knowledge of God and of his will, inasmuch as it is to be performed of man; yea, and of the counsel of God in all his creatures.

Colossians 3:10
And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him.

Genesis 2:19
When the Lord God had formed on the earth every beast of the field, and every soul of the heaven, he brought them unto the man, to see how he would call them: for howsoever the man called the living creature, so was the name thereof.

The second is justice, which is a conformity of the will, affections, and powers of the body to do the will of God.

III. Man's Dignity

Consisting of four parts. First, his communion with God. By which, as God rejoiced in his own image, so likewise man did fervently love God: this is apparent by God's familiar conference with Adam:

Genesis 1:29
And God said, Behold, I have given unto you every herb bearing seed... that shall be to you for meat.

Secondly, his dominion over all the creatures of the earth, Genesis 2:19 (above) and:

Psalm 8:6
Thou hast made him Lord over the works of thine hands, & hast set all things under his feet...

Thirdly, the decency and dignity of the body; in which, though naked, as nothing was unseemly, so was there in it imprinted a princely majesty.

Psalm 8:5 ¹
Thou hast made him little lower than God, and crowned him with glory and worship.

Genesis 2:25
They were both naked, & neither ashamed.

1 Corinthians 12:23
Upon those members of the body, which we think most unhonest, put we more honesty on: and our uncomely parts have more comeliness on.

Fourthly, labour of the body without pain or grief.

Genesis 3:17,19
Because thou hast obeyed the voice of thy wife... cursed is the earth for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life...

IV. Subjection to God

Whereby man was bound to perform obedience to the commandment of God: which are two. The one was concerning the two trees; the other the observation of the Sabbath.

God's commandment concerning the trees was ordained to be a proof and trial of man's obedience. It consisteth of two parts: the first is the giving of the tree of life, that as a sign, it might confirm to man his perpetual abode in the garden of Eden, if still he persisted in his obedience.

Revelation 2:7
To him that overcometh, will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.

Proverbs 3:18
She is a tree of life to them which lay hold on her: and blessed is he that retaineth her

The second is the prohibition to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, together with a combination of temporal and eternal death, if he transgressed this commandment.

Genesis 2:17
Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt die the death.

This was a sign of death, and had his name of the event, because the observation thereof would have brought perpetual happiness, as the violation gave experience of evil, that is, of all misery, namely of punishment and of guiltiness of sin.

God's commandment concerning the observation of the Sabbath is that by which God ordained the sanctification of the Sabbath.

Genesis 2:3
God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.

V. His Calling

Which is the service of God, in the observation of his commandments, and the dressing of the garden of Eden.

Proverbs 16:4
God made all things for himself.

Genesis 2:15
He placed him in the garden of Eden to dress and keep it.

VI. His Diet

Was the herbs of the earth, and fruit of every tree, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 1:29
And God said, behold, I have given unto you every herb bearing seed, which is upon all the earth, and every tree, wherein is the fruit of a tree bearing seed, that shall be to you for meat.

Genesis 2:17
But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat.

VII. His Free Choice

Both to will and perform the commandment concerning the two trees, and also to neglect and violate the same. Whereby we see that our first parents were indeed created perfect, but mutable: for so it pleased God to prepare a way to the execution of his decree.